The Aubrey
(Picture: Steven Joyce)“I always approach my apartments like they are a restaurant or a bar,” says Shayne Brady of Brady Williams, the firm behind some of London’s chicest bars and restaurants, including the Aubrey, Fischers and Bob Bob Ricard Cite.
Brady insists you don’t need a lot of space to create a convivial feeling in your home – “My flat’s tiny! It’s a small little two-bed behind Waterloo, but I think you can make the most out of anything.”
Just take inspiration from London’s best hotel and restaurant interiors – they may be a lot bigger than your home but they offer a brilliant blueprint for making every inch of space work hard.
Getting started
Your base point is anything you need to keep in the room, be it structural features or furniture you are definitely keeping. After that, the next step is to decide how you want to feel in the room, says Brady.
“If it’s a dining room, do you want to feel calm or energetic? Is your lounge for reading and relaxing or is it for entertaining? If it’s primarily for reading you want to feel Zen, with beautiful, calming lighting. If it’s for entertaining, you might make it more moody.”
Colour
When choosing your colour scheme, again, start with your base, then layer up from there.
“People who are a bit scared of colour should start by layering up the same colour in different textures. Then add a neutral to make sure your heart palpitations aren’t out of control.
“As you get braver you can add some bolder touches. Always be lead by things you love – if that’s a leopard print, add a leopard print.
“BUT, don’t spend loads of money on the wild thing if you’re not really really sure about it, because then you’ll be stuck with it. Instead maybe start with a cushion, if you do end up hating it, it’s a cushion, it can go, or you can move it to a different room.”
Lighting
"For some reason in the Nineties and Noughties every apartment was built with about a thousand recessed downlights. I don’t know who was needing to live on a landing strip but you don’t need that," says Brady. "In my living room I literally only put on one low table light with a pleated shade every night that sets the tone for a beautiful ambience."
Shadow is as important as light to create atmosphere. Brady says that pools of light bring people together and create intimacy. "On a bar top we always do table lamps between every two chairs so if you’re side by side but on a date, a pool of light denotes your little area and brings you together.
“But you should always be able to make eye contact with the person you're talking to."
The type of shade you choose will help too. Avoid white, "too dark" says Brady, and dark shades "muddled". At the Aubrey Brady plumped for a pleated nicotine shade - "the pleat gives texture to the shade itself while the nicotine gives off a lovely glow.
Mirrors
"We often mirror an entire wall in a hospitality project because it bounces the light around beautifully, but I think people are a bit scared of that in their homes," says Brady. They shouldn't be, he says, provided you pick the right mirror.
"A lovely antique patina works or in Fischers we used one with a peachy pink tone which is really flattering. At Bob Bob Ricard Cite all the mirrors are gold backed - you look beautiful in it. You should be in a restaurant thinking you look the best you've ever looked but why shouldn't you feel like that in your home too?"
Decoration
Be respectful of the building you’re in. “I’m in a Sixties flat so I’ve decorated accordingly. The Mandarin Oriental, on the other hand, was originally a gentlemen’s club, built in the 1900s. I loved the idea that The Aubrey was in the original rooms that could have been the library, the lounge, the salon.
“It also made sense that at the turn-of-the-century was when we started seeing Asian influences in Europe so that influence tied into our narrative that this could all have evolved from the nineteenth century to today – it helped that their food concept was very Japanese influenced.”
If you’re working with the architecture like that then you can have some quirky patterns and interesting finishes if they fit with the overall concept and tone and still look refined, rather than a full-on assault of the senses, says Brady.
He also recommends low accessory tables because they're mobile so you can move them around if you're using a room for different things. You could even make beautiful book covers a feature by turning the best ones facing out on a shelf.
"And I love going to people's homes and seeing pictures of their friends and families," says Brady. "Put them in eclectic frames and it adds to that layered, maximal look.
“It's a lost art because people think 'oh I’ve got this on Facebook or Instagram', but those lovely memories of people laughing really sets the tone, even if it's just in the bathroom or hallway."
Furniture
“In the middle of my living room I’ve a ridiculous over scaled sofa that should be in a bar where you can congregate with friends and have a cocktail. I love to throw a screen behind a sofa. In a restaurant there’d be a another sofa behind the screen, in my apartment there’s just a wall," Brady says.
"Be clever with where you position the furniture. When we do restaurants we imagine sitting in every chair on the plan so nobody ends up with the dreaded ‘bad seat’. And I think you should do the same in your home.
“When you’re starting to pick furniture you should imagine yourself sitting and think what do I see and put the furniture in the best place to get the best view of the room.
"In the curio lounge at the Aubrey we installed a fireplace in the middle to give a focal point in the room when people sat on the huge sofas. I’m not telling readers to install fireplaces but having a focal point is really important and it doesn’t have to be the dreaded TV. It could be a lovely piece of art or it could be the window and the view outside."
Don't forget the outside space
"In London I always look up at people’s balconies and they've just put two chairs and a table and then never use the space," says Brady.
"Instead you could build in a little banquette that might be small scale but still comfortable. Then add built-in planters so you’ve got planting and foliage and you've made the most out of the space without buying an off-the-shelf chair that takes up a lot of space and isn't that attractive."
Hosting
"I like bringing hospitality home with a drinks trolley," says Brady. "It sits in the position where everyone can get to it. If you’re in to entertaining, a trolley, or a cabinet, or a drinks corner sets the tone and lets people know they can help themselves. Then you can make everything feel elevated with some nice glassware."
